Tailoring Rules to the Industry: New Taipei Proposes Regulating Claw Machine Stores to Keep Them 100 Meters Away from School Campuses

The draft "New Taipei City Self-Service Vending Business Management Autonomous Ordinance" was just approved by the New Taipei City Municipal Meeting on September 25 and has been sent to the City Council for review. Among the provisions, the issue of regulating the distance of claw machine stores from schools has sparked enthusiastic public discussion. According to the results of a Yahoo poll conducted from September 26 to September 29 on the question "Should claw machines be kept 100 meters away from school campuses: do you support or oppose it?", among 736 voters, 654 votes were in favor and 82 were against, a support rate of nearly 89 percent.

Zhang Feng-yuan, Director-General of the New Taipei City Economic Development Department, said that in industry management regulations, external impacts are usually regulated through "distance." A survey found that New Taipei City has a total of 1,134 claw machine stores. According to a preliminary horizontal measurement by the New Taipei City Economic Development Department using GOOGLE Maps, if the distance is within 200 meters of a school, there are 519 locations; if the distance is within 100 meters of a school, there are 107 locations. If the number of kindergartens is also included (the city has about 1,121 public and private institutions), the possible impact of the distance will be even greater.

The Economic Development Department added that, in addition to regulating the distance between business premises set up by operators and schools, the draft also includes provisions that the machines must be assessed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs as not belonging to electronic game machines, that prohibited goods may not be displayed inside the machines and that cash buybacks are not allowed, and that the machines must indicate the amount required to retrieve an item as well as the person in charge's name and contact information. The general public's common concerns regarding claw machine machines and merchandise will all be incorporated into the scope of regulation.

This draft autonomous ordinance must be reviewed and approved by the City Council, then submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval before being promulgated. It is hoped that it can be implemented as early as the first half of next year. At that time, operators that have already begun operating in New Taipei City should comply with the regulations within 6 months after promulgation and implementation, otherwise they will be penalized in accordance with the law.